Huge bison carcass is part of rich history of species at Pendleton
Huge bison carcass part of rich history of species at Camp Pendleton

The newest addition to the San Diego Natural History Museum’s collection of mammals comes from Camp Pendleton.

The base donated a 1,400-pound bison carcass earlier this month. Base officials discovered it in September. They covered it with a chicken-wire blanket to protect it from scavengers until it could be transported to the museum.

The skeleton, once cleaned, is expected to be used for research and teaching by visiting scientists from around the world.

The animal was part of a herd of an estimated 120 bison that roam the central part of the 125,000-acre base, said Jim Asmus, wildlife biologist in the base’s Game Warden’s Office. The last bison count was done by helicopter in 2011, with 120 bison spotted.

The herd started with 14 bison that the San Diego Zoo brought to the base in the early 1970s.

To some, it’s a surprise that bison live on the military installation.

“The bison roam, breed and eat grass,” Asmus said.

The herd grazes in the grasslands and patches of oak woodlands in a remote artillery training area of the base.

“The Camp Pendleton herd offers substantial value for bison conservation because they are isolated from animals within the native range of plains bison, and they don’t have contact with domestic grazing animals,” Asmus said. “So if there was ever a serious disease that decimated bison populations in the Plains states, this herd could be a breeding stock.”

The number of Plains bison in conservation herds was estimated at 20,504 in 2008, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature. An estimated half-million bison live in the U.S., including those raised for meat production on private ranches

The bison, also known as American Buffalo, are not to be confused with the cattle that once inhabited the base area in the 19th and early 20th century, when it was a cattle ranch called Rancho Santa Margarita y Las Flores. Although the base retained the cattle brand as its logo to pay tribute to the area’s history, the cattle are gone.

The day the bison came on base is a historical moment that is being preserved through an account given by William Taylor, the man who was in charge of the base’s natural resources for 28 years, from 1948 to 1976.

“The Bison Story” was recently added to the annals of Camp Pendleton history as part of the oral history program coordinated by the base museum officer, Faye Jonason.

Taylor recalled being asked whether the base could take a few bison back in the early 1970s.

“I got a call from the mammal curator down at the zoo,” Taylor, 100, told Jonason in an interview in mid-December.

“Well, I went up and told the general (Maj. Gen. Herman Poggemeyer Jr., the base’s commanding general at the time). ... He says, ‘Can we handle it?’ I said, ‘Yeah, sure we can.’ He says, ‘Well, let’s do it.’”

State officials gave Taylor the green light.

When the bison were ready to be unloaded at the Case Springs reservoir on base, Taylor asked Poggemeyer whether he wanted to come out to see the herd. He did.

“I handed the general a cattle-prod … he went up and chased the bison out.”

The bison carcass will be part of the collection of 24,000 mammal specimens at the natural history museum in Balboa Park, not far from the zoo where its herd originated.